Big Tobacco fights NYC over rule requiring cigarette sellers to hang anti-smoking posters

Big Tobacco fights NYC over anti-smoking posters

NEW YORK — The tobacco industry wants to snuff out a New York City regulation requiring cigarette retailers to post blunt warnings about the dangers of smoking.

Cigarette giants Lorillard, Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds filed a lawsuit Wednesday in federal court challenging the legality of a new city health department rule that forced about 11,500 tobacco sellers to hang anti-smoking posters near their cash registers.

One version of the poster, which was produced and paid for by the city, contains a picture of a rotting tooth over the slogan “Smoking causes tooth decay. Quit smoking today.”

Similar posters show X-ray images of a damaged brain and lung and warn that smoking causes strokes and cancer.

The suit, filed in conjunction with trade groups representing convenience store owners and gas stations, said compelling the shops to hang the signs violates the First Amendment.

The posters, the suit argues, are also gross.

“The mandated placement of the signs ensures that every customer, including the majority who are shopping for food … is forced to look at unappetizing images of diseased body parts,” the lawyers wrote.

Jim Calvin, president of the state Association of Convenience Stores, said he has heard some complaints from shops about customers being “so turned off by these gruesome images” that they walked out without buying anything.

The companies argue that only the federal government, not cities and states, may mandate warning labels for cigarettes.

New York City’s health department issued a statement defending the program.

“Point-of-purchase warnings are one of the best tools we have to keep the next generation of New Yorkers from becoming addicted,” it said. “By trying to suppress this educational campaign, the tobacco industry is signaling its desire to keep kids in the dark.”

The city’s law department said it was confident the regulation would survive the court challenge.

Philip Morris USA spokesman David Sutton said he was unaware of any other state or city in the country with a rule like New York’s, but said similar legislation has been introduced in Massachusetts.

He said the company agrees that smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease and other problems, but also believes tobacco warning labels should be handled only by the federal government “to avoid a patchwork of different or conflicting warnings at the federal, state and local levels.”